In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, she talks about producing documentaries, reading, gardening, charity work and the other things that occupy her time now.
What are the things that occupy your time now?
I work in film production. Of course, I make documentaries and short films and feature film. I read a lot and I garden; gardening is my current passion.
What do you focus on for the documentaries that you do?
Right now, documentary for me are things that I do for my clients. I also intend to do some social interest documentaries, which is something I really want to get into and focus on a particular area and the society, especially where you want to send some message or where you want some change. I haven’t done a lot of this but this is something that has come up in my career; it is something that I am going to do.
Do you have some young people that you are mentoring?
Yes, I have a few. That is an important part of what I do. I have always thought yes, it is good to mentor young people to sort of wake them up and share the knowledge that you have. But more than ever, it has become something that I do want to focus more on. I was listening to a young lady speak not too long ago and she said that every individual, every woman needs three people in her life apart from all the other people. A champion, a critic and a mentor. And that resonated with me. I liked that idea and I thought this is really brilliant. Even before then, people had approached me to mentor them and I have done a bit of mentoring but I want to take it to a bit more. You want it to be a meaningful engagement but not many people that you are making impact on their lives.
Let’s talk about your mentors
I look up to my parents; those were my first role models. Someone that mentored me early in my career was definitely Amaka Igwe. She was someone that was an encourager and for me she was a combination of those three things; a mentor, a champion and a critic. She was very quick to tell me when she thought I was going off. She also championed whatever I did and she was a major influence in my life.
What are some of the things that you share in common with your parents?
My parents are very principled people. They were very focused on honesty, loyalty, integrity and a good name. And that is something that I have carried on and which I am proud of. My father was in the legal profession and my mother was in the medical profession. When they heard I was going into the entertainment sector, they were supportive. I think it is important to have integrity, stand by what you say, so that people can hold you to your word.
How did you discover the passion for gardening?
My mother. I was brought up always surrounded by greenery, flowers and plants; edible and non-edible. So, I think it was natural that I would eventually get interested in that and it is a great way of reliving stress. Unfortunately, if you live in a city like Lagos, once in a while you need to step away and decongest, and that was it for me. That was why I went back into something that I had grown up with. Apart from loving greens and flowers, I also got into planting to eat. Agriculture in a small way, in my own garden. I believe very strongly that we can all do our bit and help ourselves. So if we are talking about how expensive things are in the market, you can have them in pots in your gradens. I grow ewedu, okro, tomatoes, pepper in pots. A friend of mine was the one who talked to me about it. She grows all her vegetables, lettuce, everything, she doesn’t buy any vegetables from the market. So, I thought why don’t I try this and we started to see how it would go.
What influences your fashion sense?
I actually go with what I like. I see certain things, I like them and it just sort of goes. I don’t think I really go out of my way to be trendy. But sometimes, once in a while you do find some things that are current.
How would you describe our designers?
I think they are doing very well. I have a lot of favourites. I think they are doing very well.
What types of books do you like reading?
I read fiction and non-fiction. It’s everything and anything. Right now, I am into Nigerian authors and I have actually gone back and am re-reading some of the ones that I had read before. I read all Chinua Achebe’s books again, I read them over the years. In secondary school, some were recommended books and over time we read them. Then last year, I read everyone of his books again and this year I have gone back to Buchi Emecheta, reading all her novels centred on motherhood and all of that. I read everything; newspapers, magazines, books. I am constantly reading. There is always a book on my side, in my car or my bag. I love reading.
Are you looking forward to being Nigeria’s first female president?
I would love that. l have so many ideas.
Do you think the women will support you?
Yes, I think so. I have always had very supportive women in my life and I know that there are lots of women like that. One of those things that is almost like an urban myth is when you say women don’t support women. I believe that if you stand up and say this is what you want to do and you get women involved, you would get support from them. I have always been lucky, so I don’t know where those people are coming from.
Talking about support, what does your husband mean to you?
I am married and I have three children. He is very supportive. There have been so many memorable moments together. There have been births, there have been celebrations and we have been lucky and blessed to have a good life. From when I was growing up to now that I am married and have my children, I am grateful to God.
Is he a romantic man?
I won’t go into that
How is life as IWS president?
Well, so far so good. Everything is going well, we thank God. It is still quiet now.
What are the things that you hope to do?
This year, one of the major things that we want to do is to try and attract more members, especially younger members, to the society because we have had a lot of members who are now older. They are the drivers of this society. So, going forward, we need younger members to make sure that we keep pushing all the different initiatives that we have.
What are some of the initiatives that you are talking about?
We have the Day/Nursery and it was founded in 1961. It is our oldest initiative and it is for children from nine months to five years. The fees are heavily subsidised by the society and it’s been running very well. We now have a head teacher and one of the problems we have is having people who are good. That is one of the areas that we would be working on, partnering with people that can provide training for our teachers both here and in the other initiative which is the skill centre. The centre is based on the Lekki/Ajah expressway. That centre offers vocational courses like hair dressing, business, literacy, baking, catering and other skills. Now, we are adding agriculture to this. In that particular initiative, the students actually pay a lot more than they do in the Day/Nursery. They pay not only for the training that they have but also for the materials that they would use. In fashion designs for instance, they would get fabrics, scissors, bodice and other items. We have students from all over the area and other parts of Lagos. The partnership that I am talking about is trying to get someone to offer training for these set of people that are in the centre as well as training the trainers.
Another of our initiative is the LUTH Library and that has been in existence for over 40 years. What we do is that on Wednesdays, every Wednesday, we go there as a group of IWS members, visit patients in different wards, we offer them magazines, newspapers, books and bibles. We offer them words of comfort, we sit with them and chat with them and ask what they want. In some cases, they ask for water, food and we offer whatever we can. And then in recent years, we have taken up the responsibility of paying some bills, not a lot but a few patients approached us and we talk to the hospital authorities and we find out how much some of them owe and we are able to offset some of those bills. So we have taken that on and also we have donated pieces of hospital equipment when we see that there is a need. Last year, we donated a radiotherapy machine for the neo-natal ward. One other initiative is the Ijebu home for abandoned children and babies in Ijebu-ode. There we have just six children right now, so we would need a lot of awareness that that exists. All the children we have were abandoned by their parents. It’s a very nice home, a bungalow with luxury garden. We have the matron, the helpers and we have our IWS members in Ijebu Ode who help us offer tremendous support and they monitor what is happening.
Although our chairperson goes there from time to time, they are there; they are hands on and able to monitor things easier. Then we also have the scholarships. What we do is to offer scholarships to girls in primary and secondary schools, primarily girls, and we have children in different schools all over Lagos. We are going to extend our reach to other parts of Lagos because right now, it is only in the Lekki area and Yaba that we have our students. We are paying their tuition and social services falls under that. Then we have the Widows Trust Fund. Every year, we endow a certain number of widows with money to start some business. It is usually an opportunity to start a business so that they can pay the bills that would inevitably come. Our primary objective is to try and empower fresh people every year. So this young woman comes to us, they present to us documentation about their status, death of their husband and other criteria. Then we see what they want to do and give them an amount of money to start and monitor them.
Are there success stories?
Oh yes! In every one of our initiatives there are success stories. For the widows, we have different people who have come back to tell us what they have done with the money. We have had some of the widows work with us. For example, we had this widow who was a photographer and she wanted us to buy her a good camera and we did it for her. One of the parents is an old student of the school and he is our PR officer. Joke Silva is also an old student of the school. There are so many of them and lots of success stories. It is the same for the skills acquisition centre. Every year when we graduate, we call our students from all over the country and they come to tell their stories and how it all started. The centre is over 18 years and it is one of the younger initiatives. So, there are success stories in all that we do.
How did you know about the organisation?
A friend invited me to one of their events in the 90s and I have been in the organisation for about 19 years. I was looking for ways of giving back and I liked the idea that this society existed in a structured way and it encouraged me to get involved. It all depends on what you want to do. Some people would like to donate things that are needed, while others want to work with the children, the skill acquisition centre or even the widows. So, they all have a different thing that they want to do. But our common and shared goal is the empowerment and advancement of women and children in our society.
How has this impacted on your life?
Of course, it has opened my eyes further because I already know that there are social differences in the way we all live in this country. But it opened my eyes further to the fact that social services in this country need so much work. A lot of these social services that are offered are actually offered by private initiatives. In this country, when you consider that there are so many NGOs, so many foundations doing so much work, you know that there is great support for the government. There are, however, not enough funds.
I think it is only the funding that is lacking in Nigeria but the NGOs and foundations have come to bridge the gap. And so for me, that is something that has made me committed to doing more in this area.
Let’s talk about one or two memorable moments in IWS
Oh my goodness, in the 19 years that I have spent there would be so many. I was the chairperson of the school and one of the moments that moved me was when we offered the children ballet. They started doing ballet and they did their first performance and it was good seeing these little three or four- year olds dancing just ballet. It was lovely, it really moved me and it was just touching. It just showed that if you reduce them to any level of creativity, they can flourish.
There have been so many other memorable moments. We have had so many events. The other things that we started when I was there was (Nursery) was the Brownie. I was a Brownie when I was a child and the head teacher, Mrs Anyanwu, told me that they approached her and I was keen about it. That was quite memorable.
What advice do you have for young people?
My advice would be that you need to search your heart and decide what you want to do. What legacy you want to leave and just how you want to live; if you want to live the life of a decent human being or not. It is that simple and if you want to live the life of a decent human being, one of those things is a life of charitable living. You would definitely grow your career, focus on family but know that you must give back in some way to the underprivileged in our society.
